Henderson back on the World Cup podium
The second round of the XCO World Cup was full of excitement, with a new winner in the women's race, and a new contender in the men's.
The second UCI MTB XCO stop was won by Nino Schurter from Switzerland as the Ukrainian Yana Belomoina took her very first World Cup win. But here in Australia the bigger news was Rebecca Henderson fighting her way to 5th position, and back onto the World Cup podium.
In the first race of the day, the women’s field saw the first ever Ukrainian World Cup win thanks to the 24 year-old Belomoina.
“I cannot believe it,” she said with a beaming smile. “I just tried to do my best; I just tried to save my podium. It’s been hard being on the podium since I joined the Elite Women. The first lap was crap for me but the last two laps, I just flew.”
With Polish rider Maja Wloszczowska in second and Jolanda Neff from Switzerland in third, the field remains wide open in the women category.
Having won the first XCO stop of the season last weekend in Nové Město, the reigning champion Annika Langvad started strongly this Sunday but her hopes ended as she crashed twice. As Langvad faded, so did Alessandra Keller, and Henderson moved up from 8th, to 7th, then 6th and finally into 5th place – and onto the podium!
The soaring temperatures made the German race a challenging one for both men and women and Schurter, who won the inaugural stop in Nové Město, was the first one to admit it.
“It’s a tough course and the conditions today were brutally hot. A hard fight with Van Der Poel. It was the first time I saw him during a race; it’s always a strange feeling having someone with you when you don’t know where his strengths and weaknesses are. I was glad when I was able to drop him!”
In second, the Dutch Mathieu van Der Poel put out an impressive performance, being not only new to mountain biking but having also crashed during the race. Anton Cooper from New Zealand followed him in third, with France’s Julien Absalon – the reigning world champion and most successful XCO rider of all times with seven World Cup victories – in seventh.
McConnell finished 31st and full results are online.
The series heads next to Fort William in Scotland on June 3-4 (DHI only) with the next DHI/XCO stop in Vallnord, Andora on July 1-2.
